Row 1: Rosie Thomas, Administrator, CDE Title I Programs and Partnerships Office,
Maria Quezada, Director, PIRC1 (California Association of Bilingual Ed.),
Carol Dickson, CDE Title I Programs and Partnerships Office,
Carrie Rose, School-Home Connections, and Bea Fernandez, San Diego Unified School District.
Row 2: Fred Balcolm, Division Director, CDE Accountability and Improvement Division,
Deb Sigmund, Deputy Supt., CDE Assessment and Accountability Branch,
Jeana Preston, California Parent Center,
Sallie Wilson, P-16 Office,
Gloria Guzman-Walker, CDE Adult Education,
Jose Ortega, Administrator, CDE P-16 Office,
Mariaelena Huizar, California Alliance for School, Family, and Community Partnerships,
Geni Boyer, Director, PIRC2 (Cambridge Academies),
Marcela Parra, West Regional Equity Network, and Marin Trujillo, West Contra Costa Unified SD.
State-Level Leadership for Partnerships
The California Department of Education (CDE) is a five-time Partnership Award winner. With an intricate network of state, region, and organization representatives, CDE leaders for partnerships are actively pressing for strong and sustainable state policies that promote effective programs of family and community involvement in every school and district. Toward this end, CDE leaders facilitated a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between five state and national agencies to conduct a preconference day at the annual National Title I Conference for at lest 3 years. The National Association of State Title I directors (NASTID), NCPIE, SEDL/NPIRC, and the California Alliance for School, Family and Community Partnerships will use the preconference days to plan strategies for increasing family involvement in schools, help state PIRCs and state departments of education work more closely together. The results of the first year’s discussions were shared with CDE’s Family Area Network (FAN) Board.
A group of state leaders from CDE, two PIRCs, the California Parent Center, Region IX Equity Assistance Center, two districts’ leaders, and others attended the NNPS District Leadership Institute in April to take specific steps in advancing a statewide agenda for partnerships. The group formed a State Action Team for Partnerships (SATP) and drafted a State Action Plan for Partnerships. The group aims to use the NNPS model within the statewide P-16 plan for school improvement. SATP will be meeting with the state’s superintendent of public instruction to present and discuss this initiative.Encourage Districts and Schools to Improve Their Partnership Programs
State officials convened a series of informal advisory meetings that united staff from CDE, the state PIRCs, State PTA, and other organizations on the development of state standards for parental involvement. The Family Area Network (FAN), which includes advisors from all regions of the state and from urban and rural districts, provided input on various topics. This year, the group spearheaded efforts to create the California Alliance for School, Family, and Community Partnerships, a nonprofit which works with government and private organizations to develop a State Leadership Plan for Partnerships.
The group recently created a State Action Team for Partnerships (SATP), which acts as a sub-committee of the FAN Board to encourage all districts and schools to plan and implement more effective partnership programs. FAN enables diverse groups at the district, organization, and state levels to build a common language about partnerships. The goal is to implement the California policy for parental involvement using the NNPS framework and approaches and to encourage projects to increase family and community involvement throughout the state.
See the history of the California State Department of Education’s Partnership State Awards on the website, www.partnershipschools.org in the section Success Stories. Visit the state at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ and click on Learning Support and the links to Parent/Family/Community.